Dental treatment for the handicapped by a combination of public community, dental association and university hospital--a system of Suginoki Dental Clinic

Suginoki Dental Clinic, which is managed by Suginami Dental Association, financially supported by Suginami City, and technically assisted by the University Hospital, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, was established for dental treatment of handicapped persons living in Suginami City, Tokyo who are difficult to be treated by private practitioners. It has one full-time dentist, 12 part-time dentists, two dental hygienists, one nurse, and one clerk; one of the part-time dentists practices twice a week there. Since December 1994, 406 patients visited the clinic and the total cases was 9,273 in December 1999; 99 cases were mentally retarded, 36 autism, and 30 epileptic patients in the younger group; and 65 cases were cerebrovascular disease and 27 cardiac malfunction patients in the older group. Almost all the patients needed special care such as monitoring, intravenous sedation, nitrous oxide sedation, and general anesthesia. Four cases underwent general anesthesia, and no complication was seen among the cases. It was concluded that the clinic has been successful due to a good relationship among the Dental Association, Suginami City, and the dental hospital.